The Divorced Military Queen Awakens (by Sadie Baxter) novel Chapter 411

Chapter 411 No More Ifs

Chapter 411 No More Ifs

153

+10 Free Coins

She drew a quick, startled breath, the question slipping out before she could stop herself. “How do you-”

Harlan let out a wry, almost self–mocking laugh, the sound thin and brittle in the quiet hallway. “Isn’t that exactly what you came here to tell me?”

Quinn pressed her lips together, the faintest tremor giving away the storm beneath her calm exterior. “Yes. I want to start over with Julius.”

Silence swallowed Harlan. He had braced for this moment, yet hearing the words fall from her own mouth still cut deeper than he thought possible.

The first seed of dread had sprouted the night his uncle told him about the blaze–how, long before the firefighters rushed to scene, Julius had sprinted into the inferno to find Quinn and returned covered in wounds.

Facing death has a cruel clarity; only then do people recognize the truth beating inside their own hearts.

Since the breakup, he had campaigned with military resolve to claim her love again, but her eyes on him remained unchanged from their days in the barracks–kind, appreciative, fatally platonic.

Those eyes were nothing like the way she gazed at Julius.

To her, he was destined to be a younger brother, a comrade in arms–never the man she would choose to love.

His throat tightened; still, he forced the words past it. “Tell me… is there really no place for me at all?”

If he did not ask outright, the regret would haunt him forever.

Quinn’s voice was gentle yet firm, as if she were laying a soft blanket over a blade. “Harlan, the one I love is Julius. Someday you’ll meet someone you love–and who loves you back just as fiercely.”

A flicker of bitterness crossed Harlan’s eyes, a silent question of whether fate would grant such

mercy.

They say meeting someone breathtaking in one’s youth is a dangerous blessing; if one misses the chance, that memory will shadow every mile of the road ahead.

1/3

17:26 Fri, Sep 19 B

Chapter 411 No More Ifs

53

+10 Free Coins

His next words tumbled out, half–hope, half–self–torture. “If, back in the army, I’d confessed how completely I loved you–would we have had a chance then?”

Even a hypothetical might soothe the sting.

She shook her head, sincerity softening every syllable. “I don’t know. Life offers few true what- ifs, Harlan. I’m sorry–I can’t answer feelings I don’t share.”

His lashes trembled, yet his gaze never wavered from the woman standing inches away.

He drew a slow breath. “It isn’t your fault you can’t return my love. You owe me no apology.”

A faint, almost mischievous smile curved across his mouth. “So, from here on, friends it is.”

The pain clawed inside him, but he refused to add a single gram to the weight she already carried.

She loved Julius, and that settled everything. Harlan would step aside and seal his feelings away like letters never sent.

From this day forward, he would remain at her side only as a friend, a silent guardian in plain sight.

Quinn let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, eyes brightening with grateful warmth. “Of course–we’ll always be friends!”

Harlan stepped out of the hospital into a sky washed clean by autumn. He bought a packet of cigarettes at the corner kiosk, leaned against the lone plane tree, and drew the first drag like borrowed courage.

Smoke curled above his hair, silver threads dissolving into the blue, while his gaze drifted to a place memory could not reach–a missed heartbeat, a conversation never spoken, a future already lost. Only when the cigarette burned down to the filter did he straighten, toss the pack into a trash bin, and climb into the idle car.

Some regrets may last a lifetime, yet they weighed nothing beside her happiness.

He had learned that truth the night the flames nearly claimed her; as long as she was still alive, as long as her heart kept its stubborn rhythm, then his own world was already complete.

Laura stepped out of the mirrored lobby into late–afternoon light, clutching her tablet to her chest. Before she could reach the curb, Weston appeared, suit jacket unbuttoned, eyes fixed on her with undeniable purpose.

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify